The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-09-19
A FINANCIAL SEA DOG.
Some Interesting Points About Man
Well-known in Savannah.

WeL-known in Savannah.
New YORK, Sept 17.-One of the Wall
street men who, within the last few years,
has leaped into sudden celebrity is Commo-
dore Arthur Z. Bateman. He used to be a
clerk in the Treasury Department at Wash
ington with salary of 81 400 a year. Now
he is worth million or more and Commo-
dore of the New York Yacht Club. He is of
the medium height, well built, dark com
| plexioned with strong features, and nervous,
off hand manners, suggestive of sailor-like
heartiness. He is man of strong will, quick
mentally and physically aud endowed
! with the positive characteristics which win
| friends while they also make some enemies
Jay Gould recently gave an unwonted ex-
hibltion OF temper in referring to the per-
sistent 'coppering" of his bull talk on the
| market, under the belief that he was really
bear aiding Commodore Bateman and his
| followers in their assaults on the market
| Mr.. Gould said that if the alleged misrepre-
sentations of his position did not cease he
would hang some one on the fence" The
bulls claimed that he referred in this threat
ening manner to Commodore Bateman.
There is no doubt that Mr.. Bateman has
been very successful on the bear side of the
market for some time past, and as he has
stepped upon the toes of bulls who had pet
stocks to protect considerable bitterness has
been aroused against him. Mr.. Gould,
however, probably referred to number of
persons.
Who is Commodore Bateman?
He is only about Sc years of age, and has
had an interesting career. He was born in
the town of Attica, Ind, and was, perhaps,
the widest boy in the place. Attica was
too small to hold the precocious youngster,
and when only II years of age, he ran away
| from home and went down to see the Union
soldiers. The North was just gathering it
self in grim earnest for the terrible struggle
with the Confederacy. A year later young
| Bateman started with party of teamsters,
and took the trip overland in ''prairie
schooners" to Santa Fe, N. NJ. He secured
his passage by gathering wood for the cook
and feeding the mules. He came back a
| year later working his passage in the same
way and then enlisted in the navy. He was
only IA years old, but hardy, self
reliant and courageous. He en-
| tered the revenue marine service as
an apprentice boy and worked his way up
to Second Lieutenant. But he wanted to
| be rich, and as to become so in the treasury
service would require a lifetime longer by a
| hundredfold than that of the ancient patri-
archs, he determined TO strike out for him
self in another direction. He established a
stock brokerage office in Washington in
| 1881 on a capital of less than $500, and
was so successful that in 1884 he came to
New York. He has been singularly for
tunate.
He has been a Spectator to some extent
in real estate. With John W. Thompson
and Washington Mclean he has speculated
in property on Massachusetts, avenue and
elsewhere in Washington. He takes more
or less interest in politics, and is personal
friend Of Senator Sherman and his brother,
| Gen. w. t. Sherman. The Hon. Warner
10 knr nf ic nc
He believes in taking recreation when
ever a fitting opportunity arises, and in his
| steam yacht Meteor he often makes long
cruises He is usually as brown as a sailor,
and his brawny build also suggests the
| jolly tar. He might be the hero of one of
Capt. Marrvatt's novels He is a fighter
when arovsel, though not so pugnacious as
some reports have made him appear. He
knows that discretion is indeed often the
better part of valor. But when Judge
Advocate Swain, in Garield's administra-
ton, tried Bateman's metal he found it had
fighting ring When Bateman went
into the stock business Swain be-
came his special partner Just after
Chester A. Arthur's accession to the Presi-
dency Mr.. Bateran preferred charges
against Judge Advocate Swain of grave
| financial irregularities, growing out of
| their business relations, it appearing that
Swain had transferred note given by
Bateman which had been wholly or partly
| liquidated. A court martial sentenced
Swain to suspension for twelve years on
half pay, the effect of which will carry him
beyond the period of compulsory retirement
at the age of GA, the sentence going into eff
| feet in 1884. Swain is now living on his
half pay of $4,000 a year.
A rather amusing story is told at Commo-
dore Batemau's expense. He stepped to the
telephone one day, and calling up the Cap
tain of his yacht began to give orders CON
! corning the vessel and asked if his instruc-
tons of the previous day had been followed.
The Captains replies were unsatisfactory,
and the naval training of the Commodore
became manifest when he discharged an
electric flash of profanity along the tele-
| graphic wire at the head of the old sea dog
He was not aware that there were ladies in
the next compartment of his offices,
but one of his clerks slipped a note
through a crevicc reading thus:
There are ladies in the office" The Com
modore stepped out vuickly from the little
| telephone closet, and in a tone of highly
offended virtue addressed the young man
who handed him the note: ''Mr. So and So,
l never wish TO hear you use such language
again in this Office. See" he added very
| severely, "see that it does not occur again. )"
Then with cherubic smile and the odor of
saoctity lowering over him as cloud of IN
cense he stepped into the adjoining apart
ment and greeted the ladies like one who
| had just been leading a class meeting.
Com. Bateman had charge of the public
movement among downtown brokers to
present the millionaire Deacon S. V. White
with new suit last spring, on the ground
that Mr. White needed some new clothes
and that it was the duty of his friends to
see that he had them. When the Congress
man-elect appeared for the first time in this
magnificent suit with really credtable
| hat, he seeinedTto discount Solomon in all his
| glory. The joke on. Batenan and the others
was that the Hon S. V. White took the
matter in earnest, refused to see the joke,
kept a solemn face, took the snit rs a merely
complimentary expression of numerous
friends, and learning that $500 had been
raised and only $3l expended in his behalf
he suggested the propriety of an investiga-
ton, TO see whether there had not been
mlsappropriation OF funds by the ringlead-
ers in the enterprise. Commodore Bateman
has never tried to get the laugh on S. V.
White since, but the two together have since
made plenty of money on the bear side of
stocks. OSCAR WILLoUGHBY RIGGS.
The Carrier Pigeons Secret.